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Monday, October 3, 2011

My parents hopped across
the Great Smoky Mountains for a visit two weekends ago. I didn't blog
about any of the food because I wanted to relax and just enjoy the
visit. It was fun improvising dishes and not worrying about writing
down what I did. We just talked in the kitchen while I threw things
together.

One of the things I made
up was a beef appetizer that we thought was rather good. It
reminded me of panzanella (bread salad)....with steak....on a
stick.

I made a few tweaks to it
this weekend. The beefy taste, the acidic bite from the tomato, the
crunch of the bread and the sweet sauce combine for a great
appetizer. Alexis declared them to be the perfect “one bite”.

Note: I am basing the
counts marked with an asterisk* on that I got 24 cubes from one large
ribeye. You might get a little more or less depending on the size of
your steak.

Mix the marinade
ingredients together and marinate the steak cubes for 1 ½ to 2
hours.

Marinate the tomatoes in
the vinaigrette.

Tear the bread into 24*
bite sized chunks and place on a sheet pan.

Drizzle a little olive
oil (maybe 1 Tbsp) over the bread and toss to coat. Toast in a 425f
oven for 8 minutes or until crispy. Season with a pinch of salt.
Set aside.

About 15 minutes before
you are ready to grill, make the sauce. In a pan over medium high
heat, saute the shallot in butter for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic
and cook another minute, reducing the heat if necessary to keep from
burning the garlic.

Deglaze the pan with the
marsala wine and let it simmer until it reduces it's volume by about
half. Add the beef stock and stir in the demi glace until it is
dissolved. If you don't have demi glace you could try substituting
beef base but I would start with 1 Tablespoon and add from there.
Taste for seasoning. I added a pinch or two of salt and about 4
twists from a pepper grinder. Set aside.

Place 1 piece of steak on
the end of each cocktail skewer.

Preheat your grill to
medium high heat. Use a kabob shield (you can make one by folding a
piece of heavy duty foil over several times) to protect the exposed
skewer. Grill for 5-6 minutes, turning every minute or so.

Remove from grill and add
1 half tomato to the skewer. Return to grill for one more minute.

Remove from grill. Add 1
piece of toast to each skewer.

Reheat the sauce over
medium low heat. Add the chives and stir in a cold tablespoon of butter until
it melts. (This will help re-emuslify the sauce and keep it from
splitting when reheating.)

Serve the kabobs warm, topped with the
sauce.

Don't sauce them until ready to serve, the bread needs to be
crisp, not soggy. If serving for a crowd, plate them something like this and then let people sauce their own.

I am adding this to my short list of "signature dishes". You could make this with other cuts of beef. this would be perfect for using the trimmings from a beef tenderloin.

Your parents must have really long legs to hop across the Great Smoky Mountains. I'm impressed. :P

There are definitely times when I love no-stress cooking...until the recipe ends up so good that I feel compelled to share it and have no idea where to start! These definitely sound like an awesome appetizer...certainly one that my family would love!